At the end of March, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW), and the Ministry of Environment (MoE) published an up-to-date current list of the classifications of 3,281 chemicals, some of which had been classified multiple times in previous years. Japan…
The EU Commission is considering a ban on the manufacture and export of hazardous chemicals that are already prohibited in the EU. It opened a consultation and requested comments by July 31 from those affected by the PIC Regulation. The EU took this step after countries in Africa, the Caribbean,…
At the end of March, the ECHA published its updated its Community Rolling Action Plan (CoRAP) List. Companies can use the list to see which substances the responsible national agencies will examine in the next three years as part of the substance evaluation mandated in Articles 44–48 of REACH. In…
Singapore has added two amendments to its chemicals law: Environmental Protection and Management Act 1999 (Amendment of Second Schedule) Order 2023 and Environmental Protection and Management (Hazardous Substances) (Amendment) Regulations 2023. As of August 21, 2023, the amendments require manufacturers and importers to have a license to manufacture and/or import…
Four of every ten of the companies inspected did not comply with the obligations related to the use of chemicals that require authorization as laid down in REACH. That is the finding of inspections carried out during 2021 in 28 countries of the European Economic Area as part of the…
Every third safety data sheet (SDS) contains inadequate hazard warnings, so that employees cannot properly protect themselves from the hazards. That’s the finding of a study conducted by the app manufacturer Clearya together with the BlueGreen Alliance, a consortium of ten American unions and four environmental organizations. They examined 655…
The ECHA has added nine more substances of very high concern (SVHCs) to the REACH Candidate List and issued a report on the change. The substances involved include printing inks and toners, plasticizers, paints, coatings and coated products, and flame retardants along with those used in the manufacture of pulp…
As part of an update of the Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA), Japan is also introducing workplace exposure limits for 860 chemical substances. The introduction will occur in steps according to the following schedule (only in Japanese). The update means that in the future, companies must perform a risk…
Updated Regulations (Decree 82/2022/ND-CP – only in Vietnamese) on the implementation of the Vietnamese Chemical Law were published in mid-October. They also modify the registration requirements for many substances, including important precursors like ammonia; acetylene; chlorine; fluorine; hydrogen; hydrogen fluoride; hydrogen sulphide; sulphur dioxide; nitric acid; and phosphorous (white, yellow…
The Taiwanese Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to align the labeling requirements for toxic chemicals and chemicals of concern with the EU’s CLP regulation. Taiwan is simultaneously harmonizing the EPA regulations with those of the Ministry of Labor. Right now, the requirements differ. The EPA has initiated a consultation on…
